If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Upstate NY honey color and hive report

I finally inspected my hives this past weekend and found my former strong hive to be quite weak and my former weak hive to be very strong. The current good hive drew out 3/4 of an 8 frame medium in the last month or so. This is most likely a new queen in July as I saw an open queen cell and the color of the bees changed drastically. They were a yellowish mutt like and now are black black black. (Carni seems like?) Current bad hive is light on stores, drew half a frame of the 8 frame medium in the last month or so. I worry about them making the winter. They have 3 boxes, but not all are full. I saw a little bit of spotty capped brood and that is it. Not sure I can do much this late date.

I took 3 frames out of the strong hive and used my new maxant extactor (more on that later). The honey is so light. See http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...Fall2012honey/ Is this pretty normal color for this time of year? Golden rod was in full bloom when they began to draw the comb so I thought it would be dark and stinky. Instead its very light and a slight amount of stinkiness.

Re: Upstate NY honey color and hive report

It is mild taste but has a really nice, light, flavor to it. I thought also it might be sugar honey. But.. no feeder on when the honey supers were on. Also I only fed them at most a half gallon the entire summer. They could have robbed sugar from somewhere maybe I guess, but why would they when goldenrod was 2 ft from their front door. Maybe golden rod, maybe aster maybe who knows I guess. Somebody told me last weekend there was a soy bean field an easy bee flight away but I guess that bloom is much earlier than later fall.

Dan

My honey is nice and looks great to me and I am happy I got a little bit from the flow. Also looks like I got a great new queen.

Re: Upstate NY honey color and hive report

The goldenrod started here in August and all my supers added at that time have a beautiful gold color, my favorite honey of all - the beeks here say it's goldenrod and aster. For the first time ever, I even have a few frames for cut comb - beautifully drawn, capped, and LIGHT. My dad used to keep bees in the 60s and swears they never removed the supers until the end of October to make sure that they got lots of that late honey - people love the color.

Re: 5bRe: Upstate NY honey color and hive report

Originally Posted by lakebilly

Mike, what does mites have to do w/taking honey? strength of colony?

I guess with MAQS things change, I was taught to treat for mites early so I have nice long lived winter bees, I'll see if I can find an article from years ago, a person I knew kept his supers on to get all that late flow, lost 30 of 30 to mites.

mike syracuse ny
I went to bed mean, and woke up meaner. Marshal Dillon

Re: 5bRe: Upstate NY honey color and hive report

Originally Posted by wildbranch2007

I knew kept his supers on to get all that late flow, lost 30 of 30 to mites.

I know its off topic but I generally dont get a chance to treat for mites until November. In fact I am hoping to finally get all my honey pulled by the 20th of this month. I finally feel like I am ahead of the treatment game. Of course I did notice 1 pallet yesterday where all of the crashed due to mites. Which is completely expected cause I didnt split them this spring. I knew I should have treated them this spring while I was in Georgia. Oh well. I will have to make up 4 more splits this coming spring!

Re: 5bRe: Upstate NY honey color and hive report

Originally Posted by BMAC

I know its off topic but I generally dont get a chance to treat for mites until November. I knew I should have treated them this spring while I was in Georgia.

if I was moving my hives to georgia I too could treat in nov. since the bees would be still raising brood, I check a few hives for the heck of it a couple of days ago, little or no brood so they have been shut down for a while and won't start up for a few more months. as to the honey you might have straight knapp weed honey with no golden rod in it.

mike syracuse ny
I went to bed mean, and woke up meaner. Marshal Dillon

Re: Upstate NY honey color and hive report

Originally Posted by jhirsche

Aster?

My New York bees are in Clinton county...northeast corner of the state. I smelled goldenrod on August 6, and it was finished by the middle of the month. Very little weight gain. Colonies were very light in early September.

Small White Aster yielded well, and the broodnests gained enough weight for winter. The honey was light.

I supered early this year because of all the swarm reports coming in from southern sates, then mid-atlantic states, then Connecticut...

The bees started filling supers on Maple. Great sumac flow. Good clover and awesome basswood flow. All honey made my bees was the same color this year...light.

Re: Upstate NY honey color and hive report

Interesting how honey color varies by season and region. We raised a considerable amount of Sumac honey last year that, if memory serves, tested about 40mm. It was the first time we had raised Sumac that wasn't blended with clover which blooms at the same time. The pure Sumac was a nice quality honey though and as it turned out we were able to sell it for the same price as white.

"People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe."- Andy Rooney